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Danville, VA Police Department Media Releases

Posted on: April 8, 2020

04-08-2020 Charges made in March 4 homicide

Danville Police, in collaboration with the Danville Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, charged Ladarius Tomas Jeffries for the March 4 murder of Melvin Smith. The 29-year-old Danville man is being held with no bond in the Danville City Jail on one count of second-degree murder. Police arrested Jeffries March 4 for an outstanding probation violation. He has been in jail since that time. The investigation is still ongoing.

Previous releases:

March 5

Danville Police have arrested a person who was involved in the homicide of Melvin Smith. Police arrested this person on unrelated charges and we will identify them when we make charges related to the homicide. The investigation is still active and the case continues to develop as more information comes in and police track down more evidence.

Danville Police along with several of our partner law enforcement agencies worked on this case late into last night. We appreciate the commitment from these partner agencies and the cooperation we continue to receive from the public during this investigation.

We will release more information when it becomes appropriate; until then we ask anyone with information about this case to call police at 434-793-0000 or through our CARE app: https://www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=818#.

March 4

A 911 call for shots fired led to police to the 300 block of Summit Road this morning at 6:40 a.m. Officers located Melvin Wayne Smith, age 40, of Danville in the front yard of his house with an apparent gunshot wound(s). Emergency medical personnel pronounced him deceased at the scene.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting are still under investigation, but the preliminary information is this was not a random act. Investigators canvassed the area and the crime scene unit was processing the scene.

Smith was transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office of the Western District in Roanoke.